The hotel breakfast was better than expected. You can forget bacon in a place that mainly targets Muslim guests, but other than that it’s good.We wanna go on a hike today, but the maps of this area is as detailed as an atlas for kids. Nothing much to go by. We talk to a couple of tour operators but they, decently enough, say we can do the trail we planned on our own. We stack up on water and set off.

We got info about trail 10 from one of the guys we hiked with in Chiang Mai. Looks like it’s connected to trail 12 that could give us a good loop. We meet a couple if young girls coming down from trail 10 and talk to them. We learn that 12 is Closed, 8 and 9 have been haunted by robbers the last three years, but 10, 4 and 6 are ok. Right. Up and down trail 10 then.

It’s a fairly easy trail. It’s rated medium to hard, but we don’t recognise the parameters used. It’s uphill most of the way, but nothing hard. We meet a few on the trail from Britain, Canada and the U.S. While sitting on the highest peak the fog roll in. It’s like being back in the mountains of Norway. The weather shifted in minutes and suddenly the rain came down. We got out the jackets and we’re pleased with ourselves for bringing them, and then the fog dissolved and the rain stopped. We’re glad it did for the trail was mostly mud. A heavy rain would make it a slide to get down.

Well back into town we got lunch at the same place as yesterday before looking for internet top-up. We used up our account with iPads connected to the pocket Wi-Fi and my phone yesterday. There’s automatic downloads going on when they’re connected to Wi-Fi. That kinda killed the prepaid account. We get it settled and grab another coffee at Starbucks.

When we’re ready to move out and go back to the hotel the rain is back on. In the time it takes us to bring out the jackets and get ready to battle the forces of nature it stopped. We’re at 1500 meters and the weather keeps changing.

At the hotel we order a sunrise tour tomorrow morning. Departure at 06:00 to see the sunrise somewhere. Then visiting a couple of the attractions in the area. We have plans for the rest of the day also, but we’ll see how the weather treats us.

It’s a bathtub in the room and I enjoy a warm and delicious bath. Or, part of me does. Bathtubs in hotels are never long enough to accommodate me. I’m either almost covered at the chest, where my knees are above water. Or my legs are soaked but my upper body is drying off. I guess anyone taller than 170 cm know what I’m talking about.

We planned to go down to town for dinner, but then the sky opened up. Big time. It rained cats and dogs and we decided to stay at the hotel and eat there. Big mistake. They served a buffet, in a wide interpretation of the word, since there’s a conference going on here. There were three dishes and rice. One of the dishes was based on dried fish. Very strong in taste, but not good by any measure. There’s a few deserts as well, but if this “buffet” is any reference stay away from the jello.

We paid way too much for way to low quality.

After that we got off a few mails on the Wi-Fi in the repetition before turning in and preparing for the sunrise tour tomorrow morning.

“Americans have more food to eat than any other people and more diets to keep them from eating it.”

– Yogi Berra